When it was revealed that the sequel to 'Man of Steel' would actually be 'Batman vs. Superman', fans were both excited and concerned. To some, it sounded like the best thing ever. To others, it seemed like desperation after Superman's epic return didn't do 'The Dark Knight'-sized business. However, director Zack Snyder has officially gone on record explaining why the Caped Crusader will be in the film ... and it turns out that he's been thinking about this for awhile.

In an interview with Forbes, Snyder was asked if he ever thought he'd be rebooting Batman in addition to Superman. Here's what he had to say:

After Man of Steel finished and we started talking about what would be in the next movie, I started subtly mentioning that it would be cool if he faced Batman. In the first meeting, it was like, “Maybe Batman?” Maybe at the end of the second movie, some Kryptonite gets delivered to Bruce Wayne’s house or something. Like in a cryptic way, that’s the first time we see him. But then, once you say it out loud, right? You’re in a story meeting talking about, like, who should [Superman] fight if he fought this giant alien threat Zod who was basically his equal physically, from his planet, fighting on our turf… You know, who to fight next? The problem is, once you say it out loud, then it’s kind of hard to go back, right? Once you say, “What about Batman?” then you realize, “Okay, that’s a cool idea. What else?” I mean, what do you say after that?

The TL;DR version: he mentioned the idea of a cameo appearance for Bruce Wayne in 'Man of Steel 2' and the idea was so intoxicating that it became the entire movie. And can you blame him? Sure, there are definitely financial reasons to bring Batman on board, but who could possibly say no to putting these two iconic heroes on screen together for the first time? We especially like this point about what kind of adversary Batman would represent for Superman -- after the all-powerful Zod, the best direction to go is to introduce an adversary who will be forced to fight him in a completely different way.

When asked about the new Batman costume, Snyder went on about how great it will be ... before admitting that he has no idea when we'll get to see it for ourselves:

The thing also that’s really fascinating for me is that, even just in the tests we’ve been doing, the costumes, right? You basically have Batman and Superman — and this is without Ben [Affleck] and Henry [Cavill] in the costumes, but just like the stand-ins, just testing to see what the costumes look like. And you have them standing there and they’re standing in the same shot — and then we have Wonder Woman, you know, all three of them in the same shot. Even just for a test, you really have to go, “Wow, that’s crazy!” Not only is it the first time that I’m seeing them, it’s the first time they’ve ever existed together on screen in a movie. And that’s kind of a huge deal…..Unfortunately, I don’t even know the timeline… Because the movie takes place so far from now, it’s hard to know exactly. That all gets tied to marketing and strategies for the movie. It’s not just a free-for-all, which I’d love it to be. Because I take a picture of the suit with my camera– I’m actually staring at one right now in my office. And it’s just massive on my wall in my office and it’s epic, let me tell you! And I’m like, “God, I want to send this to the Internet immediately.” But I know I’m not allowed to!

You can say a lot of things about Snyder, but you can't say he's not enthusiastic. The full interview, which includes his thoughts on 'Watchmen' and 'Sucker Punch,' is worth your time.

'Batman vs. Superman' will star Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck and will arrive in theaters on May 6, 2016.